For immediate release: February 13, 2006   (06-024)

Contacts:        
Mary Borges, SAFE KIDS Coalition Coordinator, 360-236-3606
Deanna Whitman, Communications Office 360-236-4022

Child safety seat inspections can save lives
Child Passenger Safety Week is February 13-18

OLYMPIA ¾ Many parents may be putting their child at risk in the car without knowing it. Safe Kids Coalitions throughout the state are holding car-seat inspections and child-passenger safety workshops for residents in observance of Child Passenger Safety Week, February 13-18.

Certified child passenger safety technicians will show parents and caregivers how to correctly install and adjust infant car seats and booster seats for older children. Technicians will teach parents when it’s safe for children to use adult safety belts. Events are scheduled across the state; find one close to you (http://www.doh.wa.gov/Publicat/2006_news/docs/ChildSafetyCal.pdf).

Motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of death due to injuries among children ages

3-14. “Child-passenger safety is not just about babies and toddlers,” says Mary Borges, Washington State Safe Kids coordinator. “Too many kids move from a booster seat to an adult safety belt before they’re big enough.”

Kids who have outgrown car seats (usually 40 pounds, but some car seats are rated for 60 pounds or more) are safer and more comfortable on a booster seat until they are 4’9” (57”) tall and 80 to 100 pounds — a height and weight most kids reach between ages 8-12. Kids who can’t sit comfortably on an adult seat are likely to slouch or squirm and move out of a safe position; that’s when an adult safety belt may fail to protect them. A booster-seat positions the belt correctly and also helps a child see out the window.

Our state's Child Restraint Law requires:

• Child restraints to be secured in the vehicle and used according to manufacturer’s instructions.   
• Infants must remain in a rear-facing car seat until they are one year old or weigh 20 pounds.
• Children ages one to four or 20 - 40 pounds must ride in a forward-facing child safety seat with a harness.
• Kids four to six years old or weighing 40 - 60 pounds must be in a booster seat in vehicles equipped with a lap and shoulder belt.
• Vehicles equipped with lap-only seat belts are exempt from using a booster seat.
• Children six years old or weighing more than 60 pounds shall be restrained in either a booster seat or a properly adjusted and fastened seat belt.
• The law requires everyone to wear the seat belt correctly. The driver can be given a ticket if the seat belt does not properly fit the child (for example, the shoulder belt crosses the face or neck; the shoulder belt is under the arm; the shoulder belt is behind the back; or the lap belt is up on the tummy).
• When the vehicle has an active front air bag, the child should ride in the back seat whenever it is practical to do so.

Safe Kids Coalitions provide car-seat inspections year-round; you can find an inspection site or certified technician near you on the National Safe Kids Web site (http://www.safekids.org/). More information about child-passenger safety is available on the Safety Restraint Coalition’s Web site (http://www.800bucklup.org/).

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